The AIF Project

Alexander Gladstone GALLAND

Regimental number446
Place of birthGlenferrie, Victoria
ReligionCongregational
OccupationStoreman
Address30 Bank Street, Ascot Vale, Victoria
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation28
Next of kinMother, Mrs Emily Galland, 30 Bank Street, Ascot Vale, Victoria
Previous military serviceServed for 5.5 years in the Citizen Military Forces (time expired).
Enlistment date12 August 1914
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll17 August 1914
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name7th Battalion, D Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/24/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board Transport A20 Hororata on 19 October 1914
Rank from Nominal RollSergeant
Unit from Nominal Roll7th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 4 October 1917
Age at death from cemetery records31
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 7), Belgium

The Menin Gate Memorial (so named because the road led to the town of Menin) was constructed on the site of a gateway in the eastern walls of the old Flemish town of Ypres, Belgium, where hundreds of thousands of allied troops passed on their way to the front, the Ypres salient, the site from April 1915 to the end of the war of some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

The Memorial was conceived as a monument to the 350,000 men of the British Empire who fought in the campaign. Inside the arch, on tablets of Portland stone, are inscribed the names of 56,000 men, including 6,178 Australians, who served in the Ypres campaign and who have no known grave.

The opening of the Menin Gate Memorial on 24 July 1927 so moved the Australian artist Will Longstaff that he painted 'The Menin Gate at Midnight', which portrays a ghostly army of the dead marching past the Menin Gate. The painting now hangs in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, at the entrance of which are two medieval stone lions presented to the Memorial by the City of Ypres in 1936.

Since the 1930s, with the brief interval of the German occupation in the Second World War, the City of Ypres has conducted a ceremony at the Memorial at dusk each evening to commemorate those who died in the Ypres campaign.

Panel number, Roll of Honour,
  Australian War Memorial
50
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: John and Emily GALLAND, 30 Bank Street, Ascot Vale, Victoria
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Embarked from Alexandria to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Gallipoli, 5 April 1915. Appointed Lance Corporal, 6 June 1915. Admitted to 2nd Field Ambulance, Lemnos, 2 October 1915 (influenza); transferred to 2nd Australian Stationary Hospital, 2 October 1915; transferred to 18th Stationary Hospital, 7 October 1915. Embarked for England, 25 November 1915 (enteric fever); admitted to County of London War Hospital, Epsom, 4 December 1915; transferred to Addington Park War Hospital, Croydon, 25 January 1916; discharged from hospital, 21 February 1916.

Proceeded overseas to France, 21 August 1916; rejoined unit, Belgium, 6 September 1916. Promoted Corporal, 24 November 1916.

Admitted to 45th Casualty Clearing Station, 14 February 1917 (appendicitis); transferred to 1st General Hospital, Etretrat, 19 February 1917. Transferred to England, 24 February 1917, and admitted to Reading War Hospital. Transferred to 1st Auxiliary Hospital, 25 May 1917; discharged, 30 May 1917. Marched in to Overseas Training Bn, 2 August 1917; proceeded overseas to France, 13 August 1917; rejoined Bn, 28 August 1917. Promoted Temporary Sergeant, 27 September 1917.

Missing in action, Belgium, 4 Occtober 1917; subsequently confirmed as 'killed in action'.

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal

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